Living with Maggie

The sound of the key turning in the lock arouses me from my nap, I hear Maggie's high heels clicking up the hall, it’s a sound I hear every day. ‘It's a very welcome sound it means Maggie is home from work. She doesn't really like leaving me alone all day at my age but she doesn't have a choice, we have to eat and I can't work.

I hear her taking off her coat and shoes and she comes in the living room wearing her slippers. She looks tired, she says: ‘Have you been snoozing in that chair all day, you lazy old woman?’ But I know she's only joking she loves me, after all there's just her and me now. Maggie says: ‘I’ve brought a nice piece of braising steak for your dinner tonight,’ and goes about getting our dinner ready. I don't get out of the chair but I can hear her rattling around in the kitchen, she is talking to me all the time she is working; she tells me how her day’s been and about the train ride home. I can tell she's glad to be at home with me, she knows how much I love her. She says: ‘We will go for a nice slow walk when we've had our dinner.’ I don't know why she says this as we go out for a walk every evening after our meal. We also take a short walk to the newsagent’s every morning before she leaves for work. Maggie says this will help my arthritic legs keep moving, I'm not as young as I use to be you see.

I came to live here with Maggie about fifteen years ago, that no good husband was with her then. I knew what he was up to right from the start and let him know I didn't like him, and he never wanted me living here either, but Maggie said I was staying so he just ignored me. I could hear him making phone calls and talking quietly to someone when Maggie was busy so she didn't hear him. He broke her heart when he left, she often sat crying her heart out to me. It broke my heart to see her like that and I tried to make her feel better, but it wasn't easy. Eventually she got used to living without him, and told me from now on it was just the two of us. I wouldn't have minded if she had met someone who was kind to us both but she didn't seem to want to so here we are together in our own little world.

Maggie called from the kitchen: ‘Come on get your dinner I'm not bringing it there you always spill it when I do.’ So I got off the chair and shuffled into the kitchen to eat my food. It was a lovely meal of braised steak, it's my favourite. Maggie knows it has to be tender as I don't have too many teeth left now. She sometimes buys a nice bit of fish as that is good for me too. She ate her salad, how she can eat that rabbit food I don't know. She says it's to keep her slim and healthy. I’m glad she doesn't try to make me eat it, I'm too old for all that modern stuff. After we eat Maggie makes herself a cup of coffee. I don't like coffee, I mostly drink water but sometimes I drink tea and if I'm not feeling well Maggie will give me some warm milk. While she drinks her coffee she talks to me, I know she's lonely. She doesn't have many friends now, she did have but they were also friends of her husband. She told me one evening when she was feeling low that when she was divorced the women must have thought she would run off with their husbands so they started avoiding her more and more, then stopped ringing her altogether. I don't understand some people. Maggie is the sweetest, kindest person in the world. Mind you I would say that I love her very much. She finished her coffee and said: ^‘Well are we going for that walk now before we settle down and watch a bit of television?’ I look at her and she smiles and goes into the hall to get my lead I jump off the chair wagging my tail I love my walks with Maggie. I must say I'm not doing badly for a dog of fifteen years old - am I?

By Roni Moore